Kilmahog

Ben Ledi viewed from Kilmahog

Kilmahog (Scottish Gaelic: Cille MoChùig: Cell of St. Chug^[1]) is a hamlet situated half a mile to the west of Callander, Scotland.

Geography

Kilmahog lies on the Garbh Uisge, also known as the "River Leny", at the junction of the Trossachs and Lochearnhead roads.^[2] The village today consists of a few houses and two woollen mill retail facilities (the Trossachs Woollen Mill and the Kilmahog Woollen Mill,^[3]) with farm land to the north and forestry to the south. There is a local pub, near the site of the old chapel, called The Lade Inn, and the Scottish Real Ale shop, which aims to stock all bottled Scottish ales.^[4] The "lade" is a man-made diversion from the river that was used to power the watermills.

Nearby, Samson's Putting Stone sits precariously on Bochastle hill. Local legend has it that the stone came to be there as a result of a putting competition between a family of giants. The winner of the competition was Samson who lived on Ben Ledi (other versions of the legend mention Ben Lawers). A modern interpretation is that the stone is a glacial erratic carried from the Glen Dochart region and left there when the ice retreated at the end of the last ice age.^[5]

History

Remains of first century Roman ramparts attributed to the campaigns of Agricola can be seen in the fields to the east of the former railway.^[6] Kilmahog used to be the site of St. Chug's chapel, after which it is named. All that remains of the chapel is a small burial ground with stones dating back to the late 17th century.^[7] Kilmahog was the site of an early 19th-century toll house and later a tweed mill.^[2]

The former Callander and Oban Railway line passed through Kilmahog; the trackbed is now part of the National Cycle Network (route 7)^[8] and the Rob Roy Way.^[9] The village sits at the Northern point of a loop known as the Trossachs Bird of Prey Trail.^[10]

Use in fiction

• Kilmahog was used as the inspiration for the main setting in the novel "Under the Mountain" by Sophie Cooke.

References

Coordinates: 56°14′54″N 4°14′41″W / 56.24833°N 4.24472°W / 56.24833; -4.24472